


Electricity

by orphan_account



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Gen, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-09-24
Packaged: 2017-12-21 23:36:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thunderstorm + Seb = trouble with a side of superpowers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Okay Sebastian, take it easy, this is going to get worse for the next ten minutes but then we should be okay.”

Rocky’s calm voice filtered into his ears over the drone of the engine and the roar of the torrential rain surrounding him. At least he _sounded_ calm, how anyone could be anything but panicked and terrified during a storm like this was beyond him. It was by far the worst conditions he had ever raced in and Rocky had been telling him “ten more minutes” for the past half an hour, no matter how much he pleaded with him to talk to Charlie.

He was just about to hit the button and speak to his engineer again when it happened.

Just as his thumb was about to come down he was blinded - nothing but bright white light filled his vision. He would remember the sensation for the rest of his life, it wasn’t darkness, like closing your eyes, it was all-encompassing blue-tinged _white_ and it dominated his senses for that split-second before he lost consciousness and his car careened off the track.

\--------------------

“How does that even happen? Aren’t there rods put up for this kind of thing?”

“Lucky that the car lost power really, it could have been really nasty, the way he was heading towards that wall.”

“I think he’s waking up, you better leave. Sebastian?”

Seb eased his eyes open slowly, it required much more effort than he expected and was almost tempted to just close them again and shut out the voices coming from alongside him. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was driving in that storm, thinking to himself that it was far too dangerous then... nothing. Until now.

“How are you feeling?”

This came from a nurse at his bedside. His bedside. He was in a hospital. _Did I crash? Shit, the points..._ He tried to wiggle all his extremities and found to his relief that everything was still in working order, ten fingers and toes, no immediate injuries that he could ascertain. Except...

“I feel... weird.”

Which was true. After the effort that it took him to open his eyes he was sure that he should feel groggier than he was, more lethargic. Instead he felt a bit like he had a mild case of pins and needles everywhere, his skin felt tingly and he was suddenly absolutely alert, as if he’d been awake for hours.

The nurse shifted her feet and he could tell that she was about to give him some bad news, or at the very least some _distressing_ news. She wouldn’t meet his eyes at all, and settled on staring intently at his chin.

“Well, that’s to be expected,” she began, slowly, careful to gauge his reaction, “You were struck by lightning.”

He gaped at her. Lightning. _Struck by_. How many people survive that? What damage does it do? Fuck, was he okay? Like, inside? Images of his innards charred to black lumps of coal whizzed through his mind. He tried to form some kind of coherent response but all he managed was a strangled whimper.

The nurse continued:

“Technically the car was, but as the car was surrounding you you caught the brunt of it.” She shuffled again. “Are you sure that you feel okay? You don’t have any immediate injuries as far as we can tell.” She moved down to the chart at the foot of his bed. “Just some bruising from where the car hit the barrier - it actually protected you pretty well, considering you were knocked-out in the cockpit.”

His head was spinning, here he was, being told that he’d been struck by lightning, from the goddamn sky and she was talking about the efficiency of his car’s safety features. He hadn’t spoken in a good five minutes, he had to say _something_ , if only to prove that he was still functioning normally.

He cleared his throat and the nurse’s eyes peered up from her notes.

“So, am I okay? You can tell me.” He braced himself for the answer to this question.

“According to these pieces of paper, yes.” She crossed her arms and moved back around to the side of his bed. “You’ll have to come back for check-ups of course, it’s procedure, and the Red Bull medics will be keeping a close eye on you, but your vitals seem fine.”

Okay then. Fine. Struck by lightning and he was fine.

“So I can leave?” He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, to be in his own home where he could assess the situation better and oh god what were the media saying right now? He didn’t want to think about that, hopefully Britta had everything sorted already.

“As soon as the doctor comes back in to take a look at you I should think so. “ She smiled, a strange smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. A fake smile. “You seem fine to me.”

\--------------------

Sebastian leant back against his front door after it had fallen shut, leaving himself in darkness. He found his bags already placed in the hallway, Britta had explained on the phone that they were packed up and shipped here as soon as he was released from the hospital and that she had a handle on the media circus that had leapt on the story. After it had emerged that Sebastian was unscathed apart from crash-related bruises the fuss had died down somewhat, although there were still rumours circulating about his mental wellbeing after having god-knows-how-many volts of electricity pumped through his system.

The weird feeling of wrongness still hadn’t left him, although it was less in his skin and more deep in his bones now, a low vibrating that he could ignore if he didn’t focus on it, but it was most definitely there. Nobody seemed concerned about that, strangely, they were all just happy he hadn’t broken any bones and were throwing around words like “miracle” and “lucky”. He guessed it was kind of miraculous, surviving a lightning strike without a scratch, but he wished they would stop making such a big deal out of it. He was still Seb, nothing had changed, he had a Championship to focus on.

He sighed and ran a hand through his disheveled hair, kicked off his shoes and made his way to the kitchen to grab a drink, flicking the light switches on as he went. He thought about getting something a little stronger to try and quash these maudlin thoughts of morality but in the end decided to play it sensible and just get a cold soft drink out of the fridge. What good would getting drunk alone do?

As he opened the fridge door an off-balance can of Coke teetering on the edge of the top shelf caught him off guard and made a break for freedom, falling out and landing square on his big toe.

Instant pain explosion. “ _Fuck_!”

Every light in the house went out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really short one, I'm sorry, but it was just a good place to break.

“I’m looking at the fuse box right now and they all seem fine!” Sebastian yelled for what felt like the twelfth time to the electric company who were on the other end of the line.

Cradling the phone between his ear and his shoulder he pointed his small torch back at the box. Everything was as it should be, barring the smell of static that still lingered in the air, but the power was still most definitely out.

“I’ll fix it myself, thanks for nothing!” He hung up and dropped the phone to the floor with a clatter. _Useless - obviously there’s something wrong with the electrics if all the fuses seem fine and yet there’s no power_. All he wanted was to sit down and relax after everything he’d been through over the past couple of days. His toe still throbbed, and he still hadn’t had that drink, although now he really was considering something of the alcoholic persuasion.

He put the torch between his teeth so he had both hands free to poke around inside the fuse box, maybe there was a hidden switch that had tripped? The taste of the metal only seemed to amplify that strange charged atmosphere, assaulting his senses as he focused on the fuses in front of him. _Okay then, what if I just..._

Sparks.

The second his fingers touched the fuses there was a small but obvious flicker of light and he yanked his hand out of there like he had been burnt. But he hadn’t been, he reacted like you do when you get a static shock, on instinct. He looked down at his hand, suddenly worried about the fact that he _hadn’t_ felt anything, no pain, no tingling.. nothing. He turned it over in the torchlight but could see nothing out of the ordinary, the usual bumps and scrapes but no burns.

Gripped by a sudden - _insane_ \- compulsion to try again he edged one pointed finger towards the waiting fuses, preparing himself for what might happen next. Closer.. Closer..

_Fzzt_!

Again, the unmistakable flash of electricity and this time the lights inside the house flickered too, but then died again, temporarily lighting up everything with a warm glow but ultimately leaving him in his little pool of torchlight in a sea of blackness.

_Right, okay..._ Something was definitely wrong here. Sebastian tried not to panic, because only bad things await down that road. He remembered Rocky’s voice in his head after he’d been on one of his rants about failing the team after finishing second. _Second_.

“Sebastian,” in that steady accented tone, “there’s no point in being like this, focus on what’s ahead. Calm down, find your centre.”

And so he attempted to ‘find his centre’ and not overthink what was happening in front of him because it was impossible and _people just don’t do things like that._ Pulling the torch out of his mouth he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Everything was too quiet, even the sound of his breathing echoed around him, but it seemed to do the trick. He retreated inside himself to find some semblance of calm and to get a grip on the situation, to concentrate on the task at hand and work through it methodically, like he always did. After several gulps of fresh air he re-opened his eyes and set his sights on the fuse box with a steely determination he usually only saved for race weekends.

Holding the torch aloft in his left hand he brought his right one up in front of him, palm outstretched. What he was about to do was so absurd, so _completely mental_ that he had couldn’t quite believe it. But what had he got to lose by trying? He always tried everything, pursued everything to the very end, and this would be no exception.

Gritting his teeth and staring at the fuses he held his breath and pushed his whole palm down onto them.

_Light. Sound._

Everything turned on, every light, every appliance, everything that was plugged into a socket suddenly came alive. It was incredible. It was terrifying.

And Sebastian just stood there, squinting against the brightness, torch forgotten as it rolled to a halt by his shoe.

“Well, shit.”


	3. Chapter 3

After wandering around his house turning everything off that was supposed to be off (he’s not in the mood for toast right now, thanks) Seb _finally_ makes it back to the fridge where this whole ordeal started. Carefully opening it inch by inch, lest something should fall out onto his other foot, he grabs an ice-cold bottle of beer and shuffles back to his bedroom, chugging down great gulps of the drink as he goes.

By the time he gets to his room, the bottle is empty and he sets it down on a side table. He can’t remember the last time he drank a beer so fast, this is a sure sign that inside he is freaking out. A glance at the digital clock at his bedside shows - of course - the flashing time of 00:00. He scrunches his eyes shut in frustration and only then does he realise how _tired_ he is, how weary his bones feel. So tired infact that he doesn’t even bother to get undressed, he just flops onto his bed fully-clothed and is asleep within minutes, as the lights in his room quiver and go out.

\----------------------------

Seb awakes sometime later due to the incessant buzzing against his thigh of his phone still in his jeans pocket.

“Nnnggggghhhh.”

He rolls over and fishes the phone out, ignoring the fact that the screen flickers while it’s in his hand. It’s Kimi.

“Hello?”

“Are you dead?” Kimi is straight to the point, as per usual. Sebastian sits up and rubs his eyes with his free hand.

“Obviously not, Kimi, as I am talking to you.”

“You don’t call, you don’t text. What am I supposed to think?”

“That I want to be alone, recovering after being _struck by lightning_?”

“Pssh, people get struck by lightning all the time.”

“..Kimi.” He sighed. Sometimes he could be completely impossible. Not unlike some other happenings recently. “Actually, there’s… something weird going on.”

“Weird how?”

How to phrase this? _Oh I just shorted the fuses in my house then somehow turned literally everything back on again with just a touch?_ Yeah, right. Kimi would laugh and say that maybe he hit his head in that crash harder than the doctors thought.

“Uh, nothing, don’t worry about it.” _Chicken_.

“Whatever. Thanks for being not dead.”

“The word is ‘alive’, Kimi.”

“That too. Bye.”

Seb was left listening to the dial tone, staring at the wall. Okay, lets think about this for a second. It was probably best not to tell anyone about the whole electricity debacle, at least not until he’d done some experiments himself first. _Perhaps it was some weird after-effect of the storm, and it had probably worn off by now - last night was just a fluke_. He sighed and swung his legs off the side of the bed deciding to get up, have a shower and try stuff out.

The water in the shower smelled and tasted of static, like the air last night, like pretty much everything in his house right now. Hell, maybe he just dragged the smell around with him wherever he went. Even the fruity scent of his shower gel couldn’t shift it, and he emerged still feeling like he was carrying around a charge. Towel-drying his hair resulted in it standing completely on-end, straight up, and no amount of scowling at his reflection could flatten it down.

After throwing on some clothes he made his way to the living room, and to a tiny decorative lamp that sat on a table next to the sofa.

Experiment #1: Turning on a lamp without flicking the switch.

_Right, how did this work last night?_ He found he was incredibly nervous about trying this, he had to rub his moist palms on his jeans before rolling his sleeves up and crossing his legs under him on the couch. If nothing happened then everything was fine, normal, but that didn’t explain last night. If something happened, well.. he didn’t know what to think. At least he’ll know that he didn’t imagine the previous evening and that he was some kind of statically-charged freak and _oh god._

The on switch for this particular lamp was on it’s base, and at the moment it was very clearly off. Sebastian tried the same tactic as before, one pointed finger outstretched. This time he was prepared, he was fully focussed on it and wanted to absorb whatever happened so he could try and replicate it in the future. With a slight tremble he edged his finger towards the lamp, again holding his breath as he made contact.

A tiny arc of electrical energy curved from the tip of his finger in a twitching bolt, and then, the lamp was on. The switch was still off.

He released his held breath with a whoosh and sank backwards, looking between the lamp and his finger, like it had betrayed him. Maybe this was karma for all those years of pointing that damn finger around. It didn’t _look_ any different, slightly chapped cuticles, maybe that nail could do with a trim, but nothing to suggest that he somehow now had the power to turn electrical objects on and off. He shook his head to try and stop the word ‘freak’ from bouncing around inside it.

Experiment #2: Turning everything off without doing anything.

Looking back he was pretty sure that he had caused the power outage of yesterday evening. And that it was triggered by the pain of that Coke can falling on his toe. Now, he wasn’t prepared to enter into any form of self-harm for testing purposes, so how was he going to recreate last night? Maybe if he just concentrated really hard...?

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the lamp next to him turning off, all the glow draining from it until it was just a normal lamp again, sitting there, minding it’s own business. He scrunched his eyes up in concentration and sat like that for about 20 seconds before he was brave enough to see what he had achieved.

The lamp was still on.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t as much of a freak as he first thought. He scoffed, _yeah, right._


	4. Chapter 4

Sebastian turned up to the next race feeling refreshed and rested. He’d been allowed to stay at home to recuperate after the... incident and for the most part he spent it alone, bar the odd phone call from Britta or Kimi, and one visit from Heikki who insisted he “stay in shape”. He’d managed to refrain from destroying the circuitry in his house, and had only experienced a couple of minor powercuts - once when he burnt his hand on a hot pan, and once when he’d been spooked by a particularly vicious (yes) spider. In the back of his mind he filed away the fact that it was pain _and_ fear that apparently triggered the spontaneous shutdown of all nearby electrical objects.

He hadn’t decided if he was going to tell anyone about his 'issue' yet, what would they say? They’d never believe him, and then he’d have to actually _show_ them.. If they were still around after that he was sure he’d be carted straight back to the hospital (or worse) and he’d have to endure tests and prodding and god knows what else. It was all like something out of a movie, he kept having visions of himself laid out on a metal slab while connected up to a dozen whirring machines. He’d have to keep it all a secret for now, get more control over it and above all try not to _touch_ anything.

“Sebastian!” Rocky greeted him from across the garage and a small cheer went up from the mechanics who hadn’t seen him for a couple of weeks. “Welcome back, how are you?”

“Fine, thanks,” he answered easily with a smile, “It’ll take more than a thunderstorm to take me down.” _Should I wink? I feel like I should wink._

“Good, good.” His engineer’s arm draped around his shoulders, “Now let’s go through some of the data we’ve gathered for this weekend’s race.”

He ushered him over to the wall of computer screens, when Seb stopped dead in his tracks. Electronics. Everywhere. Why hadn’t he thought about this? The whole garage relied on a complex uninterruptible network of interconnected computers, and he was a walking time bomb right now. His thoughts were laced with panic which made several of the monitors begin to flicker and a couple of the technicians exchanged some confused looks.

“Er..” He backed away. “Can we do this later?”

Rocky raised his eyebrows and turned to him.

“Are you sure? Practice starts in an hour, and I know how you like to be properly prepared.”

Seb edged backwards even further. “Yeah I’m sure.. Just get Heikki to come get me when it’s time.”

He didn’t wait for a response, he tried to exit normally but it turned into a bit of a panicked power-walk as he zig-zagged out of the garage and back to his room.

_Fzzt_!“Fuck!”

A spark had strayed from his hand to the metal door handle, he needed to calm down, and fast. Who knew what would happen if he got too worked up? He had an hour before practice, time he would usually spend going over what the team wanted to achieve in the upcoming session, but now he just needed to gather himself and focus on not damaging any expensive equipment in the paddock.

He slumps down on his couch, sitting at first but then fell so that he was on his back, legs outstretched in front of him. _Find your centre_. He closes his eyes and takes several deep breaths, trying to ignore the hustle and bustle of life outside of his room...

\-----------------------

“Seb!”

His eyes snap open. He fell asleep. A glance at his watch reveals that it’s almost time for free practice. Shit. He shakes his head to try and clear the last vestiges of sleep from his brain, and flexes his back as he stands - definitely not the best position to grab a nap in.

He opens his door to find Heikki, fist raised like he’s about to hammer on it again.

“What were you doing in there? Sleeping?” His tone is accusatory and he frowns at him. Seb knows that sleeping before practice is not the best preparation and he’s probably going to be in for an earful from his trainer later, which is so not what he needs.

He mumbles some excuse and lets Heikki guide him back into the garage, where he puts the final parts of his kit on, deliberately avoiding even _looking_ at the equipment around him. He’s tense, far too wound-up for driving and he fears what will happen when he gets into his car. It’s gotten to a stage now where he can almost feel the charge building up inside him, underneath his skin, and he can’t figure out if he’s imagining it or not but it’s making him jumpy and skittish. He needs to relax. His eyes dart around for something, _anything_ to put his itchy fingers on, the tingling becoming unbearable at his fingertips. He spots a metal pole, connecting the roof of the garage to the floor - perfect. A quick double check of the surrounding area tells him that it’s not directly connected to anything important so he sidles over to it, braces himself and grabs it with both hands.

Seb feels the energy _whoosh_ out of him, flowing through his fingers and into the pole where it gets absorbed and taken away. He’s amazed at how good the sense of release is, the feeling making his eyes close involuntarily and a low sigh escape his lips.

“Seb?” Heikki.

_Shit_! He whips his hands off of the pole so fast he leaves static trails in his wake. His trainer is standing a few feet away, holding his helmet and gloves and eyeing him with a look of suspicion, blond head tilted.

“What are you doing over here?”

“Nothing, just having a breather before practice.” He’s speaking too fast and he knows it. “Come on, let’s get this show on the road!”

Seb grabs his gear and strides over to the car, purposely ignoring the intense stares coming from Heikki.

He puts the helmet over his head in silence and for once puts his gloves on _before_ he gets into the car, just in case. As he sinks into his seat and studies the wheel in front of him, he makes a special effort to breathe slowly, thinking how lucky it is that at least his hands are covered up so there’s no direct skin-to-car contact which could potentially ruin everything.

The engine roars and the car comes to life, the display on the steering wheel going though it’s start up motions. - Seb pretends he doesn’t notice it flicker when it comes online. _Everything’s normal_. he begins to repeat as a mantra in his head.

“Radio check, radio check.” Rocky’s voice comes through loud and clear, so Seb gives a thumbs up out of the side of the cockpit. Two minutes until the green light, if he can make it through this first practice he knows he’ll be fine.

He hears Mark’s car start on the other side of the garage, unsurprisingly he hasn’t been in contact since the accident, he knows all he needs to know from press reports and Seb figures that’s probably for the best. No need for him to get involved.

The engineers unwrap the tyres and lower the car to the floor, he puts it into gear and gets ready for the go-ahead. _Easy, easy.._  And he’s away, down the pit-lane and out onto the track. He lets out a breath he didn’t know he was even holding, mind clicking into race mode as his body seems to do everything by instinct. This is where he belongs, this is what he should be doing, not hiding away worrying and stressing. He cycles through all the gears as he cruises around on his out-lap, eyes taking in everything about the track around him, hands moving of their own accord. It feels like it’s just him and his car against the world, all the earlier tension forgotten.

He comes back into the pits in a much happier mood than when he went out, the moment with Heikki forgotten.

“Okay Sebastian, the numbers are good. Good job.” Rocky sounded pleased, which put Seb’s mind a little more at ease. He could do this, everything would be fine.

Famous last words. 


	5. Chapter 5

It was during the long run where everything started to go wrong.

Seb was just putting in his times - keeping everything steady as instructed, and Rocky seemed happy with what he was doing, that his pace was good for these tyres and the balance of the car was okay.

And then he sneezed.

It was ridiculous, something that hardly ever happens when you’re in the car and focussed, but it does happen sometimes and it’s scary as it forces your eyes closed for a second while you’re driving at 100 miles per hour. He felt himself blink and _let go_ for that split-second and then came the call.

“Sebastian! There’s something wrong with the car.” His engineer’s voice was distorted and crackly over the radio. “The electrics. Bring her back in slowly.”

_Fuck_.

“Sorry Rocky.” He sighed.

“Not your fault, don’t worry.”

That was just the thing - it was his fault. That little momentary slip and he had broken his car. Dammit.

The steering wheel light’s flickered.

_Half a lap, just bring it in for the last half a lap... Please just let me make it back._  He could imagine the commentary if he had to park the car up at the side of the track, it was bad enough that he had to coast it round slowly, they were sure they were talking about him now, and playing Rocky’s radio message out over the air.

When they wheeled the car back into the garage he practically leapt out of it, retreating to lean on the wall at the back after he had wrenched his helmet and gloves off. Heikki appeared at his side to take his things, watching him closely.

“Electrics, huh.” He bundled Seb’s balaclava inside the helmet. “Still fastest over the lap.”

“Yeah I guess.” He was too distracted for this. “I’m just gonna go for a walk, okay? If anyone asks where I am.”

Heikki looked at him quizzically but gave him a quiet nod and went to put his helmet and gloves away.

Sebastian pulled himself half out of his race suit, tied the arms around his waist and slowly made his way out of the garage, both hands scrubbing at his hair as he went. What was he supposed to do if he couldn’t even manage a whole practice session in his car? He had to get a handle on this, and fast. He paced up and down the paddock, returning every strange look he got with a scowl, until someone came up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Ow, fuck!”

He spun around to see a very ruffled Kimi Raikkonen shaking his hand and still cursing in two languages.

“Shit, sorry Kimi I...” He didn’t know what to say to him. Again. He couldn’t keep stammering and stuttering around the guy who he considered to be his best friend in the paddock. Maybe Kimi could be the one that he confided in? Seb was pretty sure that the Finn probably wouldn’t turn him in to the doctors or  _scientists_  or whatever, so what had he got to lose? Apart from the friendship that he had with Kimi, and potentially his reputation.. What was that when compared to crashing his car during a race and endangering not only his life but the lives of the other drivers too? What had just happened in practice has shaken him, and made the situation all too real.

“Kimi can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Sure.” He put his hurt hand under the opposite armpit. “What’s up?”

“Not here, come to my motorhome, I have to show you something.”

This made Kimi smile crookedly. “Oh, I see..”

“If you’re just going to joke then don’t bother.” Seb turned to walk away.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming..”

Kimi followed him as he hurriedly strode off back to his motorhome.  _Okay this is it, prepare yourself._

Once they were both inside, Seb locked the door, he really didn’t want anyone interrupting him when he was about to do … whatever he was about to do. Kimi had immediately gone over to the mini-fridge and was rooting around inside it.

“You don’t have any booze in here?”

“It’s like ten o’clock in the morning, Kimi!”

He shrugged. “It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

“Can you just sit down, please?” Seb was pacing nervously, this wasn’t going to plan  _at all_. He needed Kimi to sit and be quiet before he chickened out of the whole thing completely.

The Finn gave a mock salute as he came and sat down on the sofa, arms spread along the back, looking about a hundred times more relaxed than Sebastian felt.

“Right, where to begin..” He was wringing his hands together. He forced himself to stop pacing and came to a halt directly in front of his friend. “Remember when I got struck by lightning the other week?”

“I remember that you  _claimed_ you got struck by lightning, yes.”

Seb frowned. “I actually did okay, I’m pretty fucking positive that I did.”

Kimi held his hands up and motioned for him to continue.

“Well, ever since then I’ve been doing some... things.” He scrunched his eyes shut, this wasn’t going well at all.

“What kind of ‘things’?” He actually used finger quotes. Unbelievable.

“Um.. This’ll probably work better if I showed you rather than told you, because I know that you won’t believe me.”

This intrigued Kimi, he could tell, the sunglasses even came off. Right what could he use as an example.. Ah, the TV. Currently off, dark and silent.

“Promise me you won’t laugh. Or.. say.. anything.”

Kimi rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same. Sebastian let out a breath and then placed his hand on the screen. A pulse of static that made all the hairs on his arm stand on end and then.. the TV sprang into life, showing a random foreign game show, complete with canned applause and laughter that was now filling the room. He removed his hand from the screen and looked back at Kimi, hoping that his eyes didn’t show how afraid he was. He didn’t have a clue what the Finn was thinking, his face a perfect blank as it so often was.

“Do it again.” It was a command.

Seb sighed wearily and tapped the screen with a finger. It went dark. This time he prodded the top of the TV, so Kimi could see the spark that leapt from his skin. The same game show echoed around the room. Seb stepped back and gave Kimi a pointed look.

“So. That. Keeps happening.” He crossed his arms self-consciously and looked at his feet.

“You poke things and they turn on?” Kimi said matter-of-factly.

“Basically yes. Anything electrical. Sometimes it happens without me doing anything, like I do it by accident.” He came and sat down on the sofa. “It happened in the car this morning.”

“Ahh, electrical problems. Of course.” Kimi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Touch me.”

“What?!”

“You heard me, try it on me.”

“But what if I hurt you? I have no control over how much power I put out.” This was true, it varied from turning on a small lamp to re-igniting his whole house. What if he fried Kimi by accident?

“Do I look like I’m scared?” Kimi looked him straight in the eye. “Don’t be a wuss. I’m assuming you told me because you don’t want to wreck your car and that you want some control over it, yes?”

Damn, for a quiet guy he was very  _very_  observant.

“I can’t believe how fine you are with this. I basically just showed you some really freaky shit and you’ve just.. accepted the fact that I can turn on things by touching them?”

Kimi shrugged. “Less talk, more demonstrations. Go.” He held out his hand, palm down.

Seb frowned and did his best to concentrate on not hurting his friend, the was the first step in controlling whatever it was that he was doing.

His finger made to about an inch away from the top of Kimi’s hand before the energy arced from him and struck Kimi’s pale skin, making the Finn recoil with a hiss.

“Okay, ow.”

“See that’s why I didn’t want to do that.” He sank backwards into the sofa. “What do I do, Kimi? Everything I touch gets shocked, and whenever I get scared or hurt something weird happens and all the electrics around me break.”

Kimi looked away across the room. “Honestly Seb, I have no idea.” Sebastian closed his eyes, deflated. “But I do think you have to do it more.. Like practice makes perfect or whatever they say. Keep turning things on and off until you feel like you have more of a hold on it, you know? Maybe try different sized things that absorb varying degrees of power and see if it feels any different. Also if you could knock out all the power in the Ferrari garage I wouldn’t complain.” He gave Seb a cheeky elbow in the ribs which dragged a smile out of him.

“I guess you’re right. Not about the Ferrari thing,” He grinned. “Do you think I should risk doing free practice two later?”

“It’s up to you, if you can stay calm enough and keep your hands to yourself then you should be fine. In theory.” He started to get up to leave.

“Wait, you’re being so calm about all of this, I was expecting more of a reaction. Okay. not like screaming and raving - especially not from you - but nothing like this.” Seb was grateful that he was being so rational actually, it was a stark contrast to how he was feeling inside. He needed this, he needed someone to - for lack of a better term -  _ground him_.

Kimi walked over to the door. “Nothing much surprises me anymore, Seb.” He said with a shrug. “It’s kind of cool though, and I’m glad you chose me to tell your big secret to, you looked as white as a sheet when I found you in the paddock.”

“I’m sorry I unintentionally electrocuted you then, by the way.” Sentences like that were becoming frighteningly easy to say.

“Just stay away from my car, Sparky.” Kimi said with a lopsided grin as he put his hand on the door handle.

Sebastian threw a cushion at him only for it to hit a closed door.


	6. Chapter 6

Practice two passed without a hitch, Seb knew what he had to do, kept his gloves on at all times and didn’t panic at all. He was grateful to Kimi for his help and advice, it was as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders now that someone knew what was going on with him. He still managed to get the fastest lap time in and everyone in the garage was pleased with him - despite them not being able to figure out what caused the problems in first practice. As soon as they got the car back into the garage and Sebastian had left, all the systems were fine again, as if nothing had happened.

That evening was spent in his motorhome poking objects and making them turn on and off. It was even less interesting than it sounded. He found out that with a little focus the act of turning on a lamp definitely felt different than turning on the TV, or fridge. When playing with the bigger appliances he could feel a _pull_ from inside himself, like the energy needed to activate these things was being sucked out of his bones. He tried to remember how it felt, tried to judge how much power he was expelling each time, so that he wouldn’t accidentally blow up a toaster or kettle.

That night he dreamt of thunderstorms.

\--------------------

Qualifying was much the same as recent sessions - the Mercedes pair were fast all throughout the day, and Mark gave him a run for his money too, but in the end he pipped them all to pole at the last second as he was wont to do.

Unfortunately for Sebastian and almost everyone else, he woke up to a very grey and murky-looking Sunday. The forecast wasn’t good for the afternoon, and everyone was worried that it would be _another_ wet race just like that last one. Hopefully it wouldn’t be as eventful as the last one though...

Still at least he was in pole position, with a clear track ahead of him and nobody’s spray to get stuck behind if it did start to rain. The heavens hadn’t opened by the time he made his way to the garage so maybe there was a chance that the rain had passed the circuit by. However, the look on Rocky’s face told him otherwise, he knew this race was going to be a nightmare strategically if it started raining halfway through so he crossed his fingers and hoped for sunshine.

He got a great start, after the first couple of laps he was more than two seconds in front of the chasing Mercedes and well out of DRS range. The decision was made to start on slick tyres, as the track wasn’t currently damp and it seemed to be paying off, the dark clouds were still present but the threat of a downpour was nullified for now.

Seb was so focused on the pace and trying to keep his car far enough ahead that he forgot all about his ‘problem’ and just carried on driving the race like it was just him and his car against the world. By half distance he was still comfortably ahead, even after most of the pit stops had worked their way through, and he was navigating some backmarkers when he started noticing the drops of water on his visor.

“Rocky, it’s raining out at turn 6.”

“Understood, Sebastian, we’re keeping an eye on it.”

As he made his way around the remainder of the lap the weather got worse, deteriorating so rapidly that by the time he was getting to the last sector he was being called in to pit ASAP. They changed his greasy slick tyres for full wets and he was sent back out again, albeit with some skidding as he exited the pit box.

He could see everyone around him slipping and sliding their way around the track, so had to be doubly aware, all his senses were on alert which is why he was extra shocked when Rocky’s voice unexpectedly came over the radio again.

“Sebastian, you need to pull over, we need to save the car.”

_But I didn’t do anything?!_

“Why?” He wrenched the car through another chicane.

“Gearbox, we think. We’re getting some strange readings. Pull over somewhere safe.”

Not now, not when he was leading the race so comfortably, he had this one in the bag and he was sure that he hadn’t had any moments when he would have accidentally short-circuited the cars inners..

Then he had an idea. A crazy idea, but an idea nonetheless. _If I can pull this off.._

“Wait Rocky I want to try something.” He began trying to tug one of his gloves off - which wasn’t easy when you’re driving a racecar in a rainstorm.

“Sebastian, pull over now.”

“Wait a second!”

“Sebastian!”

“Two secs!” With a muffled grunt he yanked his hand free of his glove, checked his mirrors, laid his hand onto the steering wheel and _pushed_.

The rain seemed to amplify everything, he could _see_ the electricity running over his car, stemming from the point of contact on the steering wheel, lots of skittering blue-white trails coursing all around him made brighter in the dim light. It was as if time slowed down for that moment, for that one second he was connected to his car in the most primal of ways and the power that he felt from his machine frightened him. He felt like it was _feeding_ off of him in some twisted symbiotic way, sucking the power out of him through his skin. He tore his hand away and severed the connection. The engine made a strange noise and he almost lost control for a split second, having to run wide on a corner to correct himself but the car kept going. He didn’t fry it, he didn’t stall it, he actually did it.

“How’s it looking now?” He had to check the the numbers were still okay, for all he knew he hadn’t fixed anything at all.

“Keep going Seb, keep going.” Rocky’s voice contained a hint of confusion. “Whatever you did seemed to fix the problem. I don’t know what you could have pressed though, nothing on the wheel...”

“Okay good, thanks!” Seb cut him off fast before he could look into it anymore, and hoped that he wouldn’t.

Back to racing. Twenty laps to go.

\----------------------

He wins easily, the rain and the tyres working for him where they didn’t work for so many others. Seven drivers fail to finish the race. The podium celebrations are shortlived as it’s still bucketing down and everyone just wants to get back inside to the warmth of their garages and motorhomes. Seb answers some strange questions about malfunctions and TV coverage mysteriously cutting out with practiced ease, joking around and turning questions back on the reporters. He feels much better now, happy that he’s won the race, happy that he’s made up for crashing out of the last one, happy that he’s clawed some points back from Fernando’s championship lead.

Which is why he doesn’t expect Heikki to be the one to bring him crashing back down to Earth.

“Seb, can I have a word?” He corners him just as he’s leaving the garage. Standing there with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

“Sure, what’s up?” Seb leans back against a unit, hands in his pockets.

“I’ve been looking back at some of the race footage, and something doesn’t seem quite right with it, particularly on lap 39.”

_39, when was that?_

_Oh. Shit._

He fakes nonchalance and confusion. A mask falling into place quickly.

“Something’s wrong with the footage?”

Heikki cocks his head and looks him right in the eye, the blue as cold as the heart of a neutron star. He’s trying to accuse Seb of something, but even he doesn’t know what it is.

“Yeah you should take a look at it, it looks like your car does something strange but then the cameras cut out so you can’t see what happened. We were going over it for future races, just seeing if everything was okay with the car so it wouldn’t happen again, you understand.”

Seb looks as plain-faced as possible, careful not to let any emotion show. Of course he knows what Heikki is referring to, the moment he fixed his ailing vehicle by pouring some of his unnatural energy into it. He remembers the visible arcing sparks now, why didn’t he think of this before? It would have all been captured on television cameras and broadcast around the world. Internally he is panicking and is thankful that his hands are still stuffed inside his pockets, he balls them into tight fists, as if that would help somehow.

“Oh, I see,” He begins, slowly. “Well I can promise you that everything was fine in the car after that, I brought her home in first place, right?”

He tries for a cheeky grin, an attempt to diffuse the tension that radiating from Heikki. He wants to joke around, laugh it off and share the smiles that they always do. But the Finn is stubborn, and Seb can tell that he’s not going to let this go. His trainer is suspicious and that’s _dangerous_.

But then something clicks behind Heikki’s eyes and he steps back. Seb is suddenly aware of how close he had been, subtly edging himself forward without drawing attention to it. But now Heikki’s backing away, the smile back on his face, although it doesn’t reflect in his eyes.

“Yep, winning is all that matters I guess. Go get some rest, I’ll see you tomorrow for a wind-down session.”

Then he actually claps Seb on the shoulder while wearing a nasty grin, knocking him sideways as he wasn’t prepared and it felt like it was much harder than usual. Sebastian watches the back of his blond head as it moves away into the organised chaos of the garage where the crew are packing up, and it’s only when he’s sure that Heikki is well and truly gone that he allows himself to pull his hands out of his pockets.

He slowly uncurls his fingers and watches as tiny eldritch sparks leap and flicker between each digit.

_We have a problem._


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as Seb reaches his room he locks the door and begins searching for replays of the race online. He has to see for himself what actually happened during lap 39. It takes him three tries to turn the computer on because he keeps unintentionally restarting it in his flurried panicky state. He skips past all the boring stuff - he’s lived it all already - and finally gets to the point in the coverage that he was looking for.

Sure enough, there he is, he’s just pulled his car through that chicane on a track glistening with moisture when it happens. Luckily there’s no onboard shot, only a wide pan which is blurry at best with all the rain. But there’s no mistaking the dull glow that surrounds the car before the feed sputters and dies. Another camera focusing on someone who’s just spun off replaces the image of him and he breathes a sigh of relief, it was barely anything, which made Heikki’s earlier comments all the more worrying.

He re-watches the video and pauses it on the moment his hand touches the steering wheel. He edges the video along, and even though the quality isn’t the best, he can still tell what’s going on, still sees the light travel from his hand before it engulfs the car. He hopes that no-one else watches it under this much scrutiny. He supposes he could pass it off as a trick of the light, or a camera issue if anyone gets too nosy. If _Heikki_ gets too nosy.

\---------------------------

There’s a two week break before the next race, and Sebastian is told to go home and relax - which is easier said than done when your body is full of electricity. Heikki never mentions anything else about that wet race day so Seb hopes that he’s let it go, but in the back of his mind he knows that Heikki never lets _anything_ go, he still makes digs about the time Seb ate half a chocolate cake in one sitting.

He invites Kimi over for a day, and spends most of it trying to illicit a rare laugh out of him by shocking him every time he’s near, and charging up a can so that when Kimi grabs it he immediately drops it with a yelp.

“Would you just _quit that_?!”

The glowering look on Kimi’s face is priceless and sends Sebastian into a fit of giggles.

“I’m sorry, it’s just... I feel like I’m all overcharged again and some opportunities are too good to miss.”

“Then go plug yourself into the wall or something. Stop sabotaging my drinks.” He stalked back to the refrigerator and grabbed another can, albeit more tentatively this time.

Seb put his hands up in surrender and flopped down on the sofa with an exaggerated sigh. It was true, he was buzzing (not literally) and felt like his entire body was brimming with energy. He grabbed hold of the side lamp with his left hand and heard the _pop_ of the bulb filament breaking as he tried to get rid of some of it. It was a nice release, but it was nowhere near enough. He pointed at the light fixture on the ceiling above him just as Kimi came wandering back over.

“What are you doing?” His friend asked as he sat on the armchair opposite him, taking a long swig of his drink.

Sebastian kept his eyes on the light. “Getting rid of some of.. _this_.” He gestured emphatically with his other hand up and down his body.

“Your clothes?”

He shot Kimi a withering stare. “No, not my clothes, you idiot.” He saw Kimi give a shrug before he focused back on the light again.

He mentally gathered that tickly feeling under his skin and imagined putting it all in the tip of his index finger. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but he thought he saw it glow slightly before it escaped in a bolt of lightning connecting him to the light, leaving him slightly drained and the ceiling fitting slightly smoking. There was also a loud _CRACK_ ,  like thunder during a storm.

“Jesus FUCK, Seb!”

Kimi had a finger shoved in one ear and was wiggling it around.

“I think you deafened me, you ass.” He muttered with a scowl and a spattering of colourful Finnish swear words. “Warn me the next time you do that so I can buy some fucking earplugs.”

“Sorry, I just.. needed to. I can’t explain it.” Seb sighed, pulling his legs up onto the sofa and wrapping his hands around his knees. “I feel so much better now though, I can’t really explain that either. It’s like a build-up of pressure in my bones and I kind of.. _ache_.”

Kimi said nothing and just took a loud gulp of his drink. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while - lost in their own thoughts, Seb supposed - until it because too much for him and he just had to ask the question he’d been wanting - and dreading - to ask all day. He didn’t want Kimi to think that he’d invited him over here with ulterior motives.

“You haven’t told anyone about me, right?” Seb asked tentatively. He knew the answer would be no, but Heikki and Kimi were both Finns and maybe they had chats together, reminiscing about the homeland or whatever…?

Kimi just stared at him, with one of his patented _‘_ _why did you just ask me such a stupid question?_ ’  looks that he usually saved for journalists at race weekends.

“Sebastian,” He never called him Sebastian. “Don’t be ridiculous, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Seb let out his breath with a huff. “I know, and I’m sorry that I had to ask, but Heikki’s been really weird with me since the accident, and you’re the only one that knows and yeah I’m an idiot.”

“Well you’re hardly the most subtle person in the world.” He said with a roll of his eyes. “The trick you pulled with your car in the last race was pretty spectacular.”

Seb stiffened. “But that’s only because you knew, right? That could’ve been anything.”

“Yeah keep telling yourself that.” He tipped his head back and finished the last drops of his drink and got up to leave. “I’m off, talking about you all day is boring.”

“I resent that, I am very interesting.” Seb said with a smirk from his position on the sofa.

Kimi snorted and made his own way across the open-plan room, tossing his can into a small bin as he went and paused at the front door. Sebastian saw something then, reflected in his friend’s posture and in his pale eyes.

“Behave yourself, okay Seb?” The carefree atmosphere of a few seconds ago was diluted down to nothing. “I mean it, be careful. If Heikki’s noticed then no doubt others will have noticed too.”

Sebastian bit his lip and looked at the floor. “I know, I know.” He hated being told off, even if it was only by Kimi. Normally he would have bitten out a retort, but because he genuinely felt bad he opted for quiet shame instead. “See you later?” He phrased it as a question.

Kimi nodded and gave a half-hearted wave as he closed the door behind him with a click. Seb sank into the sofa and let his head fall back, staring at the light fitting he blew up. He frowned. _Am I going to be like this forever?_ There’s only so many times a guy can spew lightning out of his fingertips and still be ‘okay’.

He brought his hands up in front of his face. Still the same chapped skin, still the same old blister scars. But then he dug into that newly-activated part of his mind and gave a little _nudge_. It was so easy now, so simple to control. He knew exactly what to do, how far to push it to get just enough power out. He watched the energy dance over his palms and between his fingers, hypnotised by the lights. It doesn’t hurt him, it never does, it’s more of a light tickle akin to a feather being swiped over his skin. He knew he could do this for hours and not be drained.

He pushed harder.

The lights pulsed and expanded, turning into mini lightning bolts as they sprung loose from his hands, leaping and crackling into the air. _How far could I go with this..?_

He took a deep breath and--

_DING DONG._

His hands immediately fell into his lap and his head snapped around to look at the door. It was probably Kimi, having forgotten something of his. He would leave things lying around all the time and forget to take them with him - Seb had lost count of the amount of times he’d been left with his friend’s phone, having to endure it’s ringing and buzzing until he found Kimi to return it to.

Seb heaved himself up and made his way to the door, looking around as he went for whatever it was that Kimi had left behind.

“What was it this t--”

Two men. Dressed head to toe in black. Balaclavas. A blow to the head.

He took his house’s power with him into the darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

For the second time in a month, Sebastian awoke with no idea of where he was.

As his eyes came into focus he could tell that he was lying on a bed, the room was very white, and he was tied down at his wrists and ankles. His head was subtly throbbing with a low _thud thud_ as he regained his bearings.

Also, he noticed, nothing was made of metal.

Everything around him was constructed out of moulded plastic. Coincidence? He glanced down and saw that beneath a standard hospital gown he was dotted with connectors and cables, snaking away from him across the room to some machines that were beeping softly - albeit heavily encased in a plastic shell. There were bright neon lines weaving their way across the screens, he could make out the distinctive heartbeat wave, but the others were gibberish to him.

_Where am I?_

As soon as the thought left his head the door opened and a woman came in. She was dressed in medical scrubs, complete with latex gloves, and went straight over to the machinery without giving Sebastian so much as a wandering glance.

“Hello?” Seb ventured, quietly.

Her back stiffened visibly at the sound of his voice, but she didn’t turn around.

“Where am I?” He asked. Still no response, she was writing something down onto a clipboard that was hooked over the edge of a trolley.

“I know you can hear me. Stop ignoring me. Where am I? What’s going on?” He hated the tinge of desperation that came through in his voice, but he was beginning to panic. This was the thing he was most afraid of, that he would be taken away and.. and.. He didn’t even want to finish that thought, his mind was racing out of control.

The woman put the clipboard back onto the trolley with a clatter, turned and walked out of the room, carefully looking straight ahead at all times as Sebastian just sat there dumbfounded.

_Okay, something is definitely wrong here_. He tried to _push_ into his hands and the restraints that encircled them but only succeeded in making sparks fly out of the ends of his fingers and into the air.

_BEEEEEEEEP_.

He whipped his head around to the machine that had started wailing, wishing his hands were free so that he could cover his ears. One of the graphs on the screen had a huge spike in it, which obviously had set off some kind of alarm. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back as he realised just how stupid he had been. Of _course_ they’d be monitoring that, whoever “they” were. _Fuck_. He scrunched his eyes closed even more until his head hurt, cursing himself internally.

The beeping stopped.

“Sebastian.”

Seb opened his eyes so fast that his vision blurred and dancing dots overlaid the image in front of him. He shook his head to focus because he couldn’t quite believe what - _who_ \- he was looking at.

Christian stood at the foot of his bed, wearing one of his expensive suits and a crisp white shirt, hands in pockets, looking at him with completely emotionless eyes. The absolute opposite of the looks he normally gave him. This look was dead, flat, as if he was gazing at a piece of one of the cars not his loyal driver of the past five years. Sebastian was struck dumb, he just stared and gaped, trying to process that it was _Christian_ that had him tied down to a bed in a creepy sterile room.

“I’m sure you have many questions,” Christian was saying as he walked around to the side of the bed. Seb flinched away from him involuntarily. “All of which I can try to answer as best as I can. You are very special, Sebastian.” He said with a subtle smile.

“I… Why?” Single-syllable words were about all he could manage right now.

“Why are you here? Did you honestly think that we weren’t watching you? That we didn’t know what was happening to you since the accident? Sebastian, it took six marshals to extract you from your car that day because four of them got electrocuted while attempting to pull your unconscious body out of the cockpit.”

_What? No._

He continued. “When we finally got you to a hospital, your test results were off the charts, everything accelerated and enhanced, even though you were still in an induced coma. We knew immediately that this was something that we had to keep to ourselves, which is why I have never mentioned it to you before. I was beginning to think that maybe it was just a phase, that the side-effects had faded over time, but when Heikki came to me--”

“Heikki.” Seb bit out the name in subdued fury, his suspicions had been correct after all. He should have spoken to Heikki before it had gotten out of hand. The betrayal stung.

Christian sighed. “Yes, you understand that he was just doing his job, any changes in you are his responsibility to fix or to report to us. None of your team know what we know, myself and Adrian are the only ones with all the information and analysis on you.”

He was talking about him like he wasn’t a person - like he was an _experiment_. It made Seb feel suddenly sick. All this time he thought he was being so careful, when in reality they were monitoring him from behind the scenes without him even knowing. Talking about him using words like _analysis_.

“Did you bug my house?” He couldn’t bring himself to look at his boss in the eyes, for fear that they would still be lifeless.

“We set up some recording devices, yes. Just to track any suspect electrical activity, which is why we brought you in earlier actually.”

“Was knocking me out really necessary?” His head still hurt.

“We weren’t sure how… compliant you’d be, or if you’d lash out and hurt someone again.”

_Again_. The reminder of the four marshals that he’d accidentally injured jarred and ricocheted around his skull. He’d never intended to hurt people… How had all his worst fears come true at once? It was like he was living a nightmare.

“You’re here because obviously we need to do some more tests and try and ascertain what’s causing this. It really is extraordinary, I just wish we could understand it all better.”

Christian moved away from his bedside and walked over to the monitors on the other side of the room.

“Look at these readings - just a minute ago you produced a current that could power an entire house for an hour, and I bet you weren’t even trying.” He looked and smiled at Seb then, fondly this time, as if a baby had just taken it’s first steps. “Think of what you could do with that power Sebastian, if we could harness it, if we could somehow control it’s flow and make it constant then just imagine--”

“ _ENOUGH_.”

Seb wrenched himself into a sitting position, angrily tugging at the restraints around his wrists.

“Just listen to yourself! I am not yours to mould and _play with_ , this is my life we’re talking about, what if I don’t agree to any of your plans? What if I quit?”

“Oh don’t be silly, Sebastian,” Christian’s expression turned dark and ugly as he strode back over to the bed. “You are _our_ property, you signed a contract, technically Red Bull own you and whatever you can do for the foreseeable future. Your body belongs to us.”

Surely there had to be some way out of this, Seb was beginning to get the impression that Christian and the team bosses intended to use his power to cheat. To do something with the car that involved him and what he could now do. And he’d be damned if he was going to be a part of some nefarious cheating plan - he would never win by cheating. _Never_.

He looked down at his hands again, could still feel the river of energy running just under his skin, and Christian had moved so close to him during his little rant, he wondered if he could…

As if reading his mind, Christian’s eyes widened and he began to take a step back.

“Now, Sebastian.. Seb..”

It was too late though. Seb focused harder than he had ever done in his life and poured every drop of power into his left hand until he physically couldn’t contain it anymore. He gave one almighty mental _shove_ unleashing a thick bolt of lightning that struck his boss hard in the chest and sent him flying across the room, skidding until he came to a rest slumped against the whitewashed wall. Most definitely out cold.

Sebastian was breathing hard, the exertion had taken a lot out of him, more than it had ever done before. He didn’t have time to think about the consequences of his actions now, he had to do something before someone else came into the room and found Christian unconscious.

Somehow in the mini-explosion the plastic encircling his left wrist had softened and become pliable, soft enough that Seb could now pull his hand free and begin working on the other restraints. The right wrist one took some work with just his left hand but once both hands were loose he quickly freed his ankles and flexed his joints. He ripped all the tiny connectors and cables off of his chest and ignoring the protests from the attached machines made a run for the open door.


	9. Chapter 9

 

Sebastian was greeted with a white corridor, stretching out to his left and right and dotted with heavy metal doors that were identical to the one that he had just stepped through. He had to make a snap decision - left or right? He was still struggling to draw a breath and was running on pure adrenaline as he felt a bead of sweat run down the back of his neck.

He chose left and half-ran, half-jogged down the hallway, silently praying that he wouldn’t bump into anyone. It dawned on him that he had no idea where he was, and that he was still clad only in a hospital gown. First things first, he had to slow down his brain and find some clothes before he escaped from wherever the hell he was.

As luck would have it, he came across a trolley loaded with Red Bull teamwear, obviously dirty washing that was being taken away. Seb didn’t dwell on the fact that these were someone else’s clothes (and the fact that he wasn’t wearing any  _underwear_ ) and dug through the pile until he found a t-shirt and shorts that he knew were his size. Hurriedly ripping off the gown and throwing on the new clothes he took a couple of breaths and tried to plaster a calm look on his face, his mind working out that this must be some kind of Red Bull facility and that perhaps having  _Sebastian Vettel_  walking around might not come as a surprise if he met anyone on his way out. He could only hope that there weren’t more people involved in his predicament than he thought, that Christian and Adrian had kept tight-lipped about the situation and that nobody else knew that he was here.

At an intersection with another corridor there was a sign on the wall. It declared this place to be “Medical & Scientific Research (Red Bull Racing)” and underneath was a list of departments - Food Science, Human Biology Wing, etc -  with arrows next to their names. At the very bottom was the word Sebastian was looking for - ‘EXIT’. He let out a small sigh of relief and hurried towards that direction, navigating himself around several more corners and down a flight of stairs until he finally came to a small lobby encased by glass walls and a revolving door.

There was a young girl sat at a desk facing the door and he momentarily stumbled before remembering that he was Sebastian Vettel and that it would be perfectly fine for him to be walking around here. Right? He felt that his practiced press-pleasing grin was a little wonky as he tried to stride confidently past the receptionist, but he kept his head held high and focussed on getting to the doors and the sunlit plaza outside.

“Excuse me?”

He froze.

“Mr Vettel?”

He let out his held breath with a WHOOSH and turned around.  _It was only the girl, she probably just wants an autograph or something, get a grip, Seb._

“Yes?” He smiled.

“Oh good it is you, nobody said you were in today, I guess you’ve been meeting with Christian?” She had a crooked smile and twinkly brown eyes.

“You could say that..” He replied, hopefully not sounding as nervous as he felt. “I really have to get going now, sorry.” He gave her a half-hearted wave and started to turn back towards the doorway.

“Do you want me to call you a car?”

_Of course_. Of course he wouldn’t be expected to just  _walk outside_. He turned back to the girl and gave her his brightest toothy smile.

“Actually, yes please, if you wouldn’t mind.”

\-------------------------------

It turned out that the Red Bull Medical & Scientific Research facility was located in Switzerland, in fact not too far from Sebastian’s own home - which explained why the two masked men knocked him out and transported him there so quickly and easily. He wondered why no-one had ever mentioned it before, or why he was never told it even existed. The thought of all these unspoken secrets made his skin crawl.

He found the spare key under the plant pot to the left of his front door, let himself in, locked the door and slid to the floor.

Only now did he let everything truly sink in. The importance of what just happened. He was  _kidnapped_. By  _Christian_  of all people. What could he do now? What could he say without revealing that he had ridiculous lightning powers that he may very well have  _killed his boss_  with?

Seb let out a frustrated howl, pulled his knees up to his chest and clawed his hands in his hair. He could feel the dirty blonde strands sticking up with static as he sat there. Why him? Why did he have to be struck by bloody lightning?!

He had to talk to  _someone_ , he couldn’t plan anything on his own, not with his mind all over the place like it was right now. He needed someone rational, calm and cool.

He called the only person that he could. Kimi.

“What?” The Finn was as charming as usual when answering his phone.

“Hey, are you busy?” Seb chewed on the end of his finger.

“Maybe. It depends what you want.”

“Red Bull kidnapped me.” There was no point in beating around the bush with Kimi, he would get bored and probably hang up on him if he didn’t launch straight into the conversation.

There was a pause from the other end of the line.

“Repeat.”

“After you left before.. Two men knocked me out, took me to some kind of secret base and I woke up tied to a bed.” Seb closed his eyes - it sounded absurd even to his own ears. “It was all Christian, Kimi. He knew everything. About the accident, about what I can do. Everything.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“No! No, it’s not safe at my house.” Seb said, panicked. “They bugged the house, I’m calling you from a phone box.”

“Come here then. I’m at home. They can’t have bugged my house too, right?” If Kimi was frightened or upset then he certainly didn’t sound like it.

“Er.. I don’t know.. If they knew everything that had gone on in my house then they know that you know. Kimi, I’m so scared.” His voice trembled, he tried to reign it in. “By now they surely would have found Christian and be coming after me again. I don’t know where I can go, and now I’ve put you in danger as well and I’m just so  _stupid_.” He let out a little hiccup and the line crackled.

“Seb, shut up.”

Seb shut up.

“Look, I knew what I was getting myself into when you told me your secret and I promised to stick with you, right? But you need to tell me everything so we can sort out a plan of action, and you need to calm down because I can tell you’re going into one of your panics and I don’t want you to destroy the phone. That’s government property you know.”

Seb felt the corner of his mouth tilt upwards. “I know, I know. Thank you. I was thinking of that cafe we went to last year? With that waiter you yelled at?”

“If I wanted sugar in my coffee I’d have asked for it.”

“I’m sure that poor guy will never put sugar in anyone’s coffee again after that day. Anyway it’s quiet and I’m pretty sure no-one else knew that we went there.”

“See you in half an hour.” And with that he hung up and Sebastian was left alone again.

\--------------------------------

They were sat facing each other across a small wooden table in a secluded corner of a Swiss cafe. Kimi was sipping on a strong coffee. With no sugar.

“I still can’t believe it.” He was saying. “They’ve been watching you? Since when?”

Seb shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Since it happened I think, since that race day when I had the accident. There were some marshals…” He broke eye contact with Kimi and cast his eyes down towards the table. “Some people got hurt and they must’ve covered it up or something, but they always knew.” He poked at a teaspoon, light sparks flitting in between him and the cool metal, his skin humming softly.

Kimi nodded and took another thoughtful sip of his drink. “And you knocked Horner unconscious? Without anyone knowing?”

“Yeah I.. pushed harder than I ever have before and he just went flying. But Kimi, the things he was saying, the fact that he wanted to use me.. You have to understand that I didn’t have any choice.” He knew he sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anything else. Maybe he was.

“No-one came after you?”

Sebastian stopped playing with the spoon and thought about this. Surely Christian would be up and awake by now, why hadn’t anyone come for him to kidnap him again?

“No, nobody came after me. Not yet anyway. There wasn’t even any sign that anyone had been at my house.”

“Okay this means something. They’re probably not going to try the same tactic again, as it backfired on them and you almost killed someone.” Seeing the horrified look on Seb’s face he added, “No offence.”

Seb sent an arc of lightning from his finger to Kimi’s hand that was clutching his cup, making his friend whip his hand away.

“Ow! You little fuck.” He hissed. Seb just shrugged. “What I was  _saying_  is that I think you’ll be okay, for now at least. My guess is that they’ll back off and let you do your thing for a while, probably lulling you into a false sense of security though.”

“You are not helping.”

“Hey I’m just telling you what I think.” He finished his coffee with a gulp. “Anyway, you’re ready for them now, just zap them if they try anything.” He made a jabbing motion with his finger.

Seb rolled his eyes. “That is not the solution to every problem, Kimi.”

Something flickered across Kimi’s face, quick as a fleeing shadow. “If I could do what you could do, that would be  _my_  preferred solution.”

Sebastian picked up the teaspoon again and twirled it between his fingers, pondering his options. How often did he really have to interact with Christian and Adrian? He could try and avoid them for as long as he could, and he could probably fire Heikki for betraying him… although physios with his skills were hard to come by halfway through the season. Rocky was safe though, he would have to stick to Rocky like glue.

“So you’re saying I just pretend like everything is normal? Act as if nothing ever happened? Keep racing for them?”

Kimi raised one eyebrow and fixed him with a cool gaze.

“Do you know how to do anything else?”


End file.
